Matt Birney

ASX listed PharmAust has taken a major step towards safeguarding the intellectual property of its promising anti-cancer drug after being granted a key patent in China. The patent strengthens the Perth-based company’s IP protection in a critical world market and provides protection for 16 years, with PharmAust expecting further patents to be issued in coming months.

Blina Minerals have snapped up the Dingo gold project in the Eastern Goldfields for the bargain price of $20,000. The project comes with extensive historical drill data that has defined a significant zone of shallow mineralisation, with the real prize potentially being the primary source of mineralisation in an underlying intrusive body.

Sky and Space Global have easily raised $10 million at 19c a share in a heavily oversubscribed placement that will fund the company as it forges ahead with the launch of its first three miniature telecommunications satellites within weeks. The company’s amazing share price run has seen the stock jump from a low of 1.6c in August last year to 26c last month.  

Lithium Australia’s focus on technology is paying dividends with the successful trial of a newly developed portable tool that is able to measure Lithium content from core samples in the field. The analyzer overcomes the limitations of the more traditional “XRF” tool that struggles to identify Lithium and could bring a whole new perspective to the feverish global hunt for Lithium.

Medicinal marijuana player MGC Pharmaceuticals are on a mission to be one of the first ASX listed companies to garner serious revenues from medicinal cannabis derived products. The company announced this week they had signed up wholesalers in Europe to market their cannabis derived skin care and cosmetics lines. 

Auroch Minerals are racing ahead with the first drill program at their high-impact Copper-Zinc project in Portugal, locking in a contractor to start drilling mid-month. The drill results will be hotly anticipated, with the project located just 20 km along strike from the “super-giant” Neves Corvo mine and sitting on a host of ripe geophysical targets.

Peppermint Innovation will hand deliver its mobile bill payments technology to the front doors of up to 60,000 Filipino households in what looks to be an impressive partnership with a very large gas bottle home delivery company in the Philippines. Householders will now be able to pay their other bills at the same time that they receive their regular supply of LPG gas. 

It’s not very often you get to steal a project from the Chinese but only a year after paying Chinese and other interests just $83,000 for the Millenium copper-cobalt project in Queensland, Hammer Metals have farmed it out in a deal worth up to $2.7m. Their JV partner is a serious player in the battery metals business and brings more than just exploration money to the table. 

Troy Resources have delivered some good news for shareholders with the company’s first ore-grade hits from exploration outside of the Karouni mine area in South America. The encouraging gold intercepts validate the targeting work by Troy’s exploration team last year and support the view that Karouni could be just the start for the Perth-based gold producer.